Just another attempt by me in my spare time! I never liked the LIS Robot model kit due to its obvious inaccuracies, but I thought I would give it a try and attempt to correct some of the problems with my limited modeling skills.

I corrected the overall shape of the robot's upper torso (it should taper a bit from the top down) by gluing a strip of square styrene onto the upper rim and using sheet styrene and putty to fill in the rest. Unfortunately I do not have the proper equipment to make it perfect and using silver paint shows EVERY FLAW!!!

On the torso, I have widened the control panel and scratch-built all of the lights, knobs and buttons, neon voice box and raised edges around the control area, voice box and the arm openings. I also modified the ends of the arms by making styrene collars at the base of each claw to add some depth. Not visible is the new power pack and control box behind the clear ribbed front plate at the bottom front of the torso section.

I also corrected the tread section. Again sheet styrene and square stock was used to correct the angle somewhat. I kept the original side plates to prevent having to recreate the raised detailing on the sides. I modified these plates with small triangular sheet styrene pieces on each end and glued the treads in place after removing the mounting protrusions on the back of each wheel.

Next I removed that awful conical thing supporting the bubble and created a new one with a rough piece of styrene rod, spinning it in a power drill chuck at low speed and carefully shaping it with a hobby knife. I then added a round piece of sheet where the base of the "cone" was and at the bottom of the ear cylinder to correct the shape. Putty was again used to fill in the overall shape.

I also removed most of the original light fingers in the bubble and made my own by spinning some styrene rod again and positioning them so that they were not all on the same horizontal plane.

I created the control box, complete with switch, light and tape spool, that I left partially opened. After all, I want to display it!

I chose to orient the arms upward because the other way just didn't look right to me. Once everything was said and done I "dusted" the tread section and Dr. Smith's boots with simulated dirt. After all, the laws of physics have to apply somewhere, right?!!

For the power pack, I did not apply a great deal of detail, but the shape is better than the original one in the kit. I am not pleased that every pit and crease in the modified torso shows with the silver paint ("Oh, the pain!"). I did use a fine grain sand paper to buff it, giving it a more realistic-looking surface. This effect looks best on the tread section however.

Robert Young